Tuesday, July 26, 2005
He..............lp Meeeeeeeeee...............????
I love my bike. Talking about love, my first love was Maths, next love was DSP and currently it is Veena and the bike. It is very less likely to change now. Sid says I fall in love with wrong things. Well, that's another issue altogether. Hope I'm not offending half(slightly more) the world population, if I say I never found any specimen worthy of falling in love; not that I didn't have crushes once or twice a year. (If I did offend, my apologies; I was saying in a jocular vein). I should admit, I had better things to do than taking them seriously, knowing that it is not worth it.
Let's not digress from the main topic. Topic is not love, but the fact that I love my bike (no, no, no topic is not even that, I'll come to it). The reason is that I get euphoric when I'm sitting on her. She has never let me down morally, though I used to physically fall down quite often during the first 6 months. My average speed on city roads is 50 kmph, on ring roads-70kmph. Max speed I've ever touched is 85kmph, which is not bad for a bike like Victor, considering that I would've 'gone with the wind' at any higher speed (You know, I'm not very big to look at). Now, when one is in love, one tends to over-estimate the abilities of the object of love, for love is 'blind'. Sometime or the other one has to face the consequences of this over-estimation. Fortunately, in these 2.5 years I never had any such experiences but for one which happened very recently, as late as last friday night 10p.m. The Almighty would've created the situation to open my 'eyes' to the reality. As a side benefit, it is serving as a subject to write on.
I think by now I have generated 'great expectations' from your side on what I have to write. In that case I must warn you: It is not going to be as interesting as you are expecting. You might want to stop reading it here if you don't prefer to be disappointed at the end. Only if you don't have anything better to do, then you may kindly proceed to the next paragraph.
Let's not digress from the main topic. Topic is not love, but the fact that I love my bike (no, no, no topic is not even that, I'll come to it). The reason is that I get euphoric when I'm sitting on her. She has never let me down morally, though I used to physically fall down quite often during the first 6 months. My average speed on city roads is 50 kmph, on ring roads-70kmph. Max speed I've ever touched is 85kmph, which is not bad for a bike like Victor, considering that I would've 'gone with the wind' at any higher speed (You know, I'm not very big to look at). Now, when one is in love, one tends to over-estimate the abilities of the object of love, for love is 'blind'. Sometime or the other one has to face the consequences of this over-estimation. Fortunately, in these 2.5 years I never had any such experiences but for one which happened very recently, as late as last friday night 10p.m. The Almighty would've created the situation to open my 'eyes' to the reality. As a side benefit, it is serving as a subject to write on.
I think by now I have generated 'great expectations' from your side on what I have to write. In that case I must warn you: It is not going to be as interesting as you are expecting. You might want to stop reading it here if you don't prefer to be disappointed at the end. Only if you don't have anything better to do, then you may kindly proceed to the next paragraph.
On 21st July'05, one of our team's creations started working the way we wanted it to work. You should excuse me for not being able to give more details on that as it is confidential. We all were very much on the 9th cloud and decided to celebrate on a pleasant friday night, i.e. 22nd July. The venue for Dinner was "Samarkand, Infantry road". It started at 8pm; had a nice time with our VP (Vice President) and the team-mates. At about 9:45, I suddenly remembered that I have a home at Subramanyanagar (near Rajajinagar) and I had to leave if I wanted to reach safe. The party continued and sadly I had to say "Bye" to the folks.
I had parked my bike in the basement. There was a ramp connecting basement to the Infantry road. It was at an angle > pi/4 (must be about 55 degrees) to the horizontal plane. I went to my bike, gave her a pat, kickstarted with one kick, put the 2nd gear and headed towards the ramp. Brrrrrrrrrrrrr......,soon the meter showed 40, while I switched the gear to 4th. My bike had no problems with a normal slope in 4th gear. Reached the base of the ramp and happily started ascending, only to realize my mistake in next fraction of a second. Too late to even panick. Quickly switched to 3rd, accelerated with full energy hoping to reach the top. We were just about 1/2 a feet away when she couldn't pull me through and gave up!!! If I was a novice at driving, I would've back-traced the path and rotated 360 degrees twice. Thank my Mom, I was having full sense too, since I didn't taste the 'champagne' that was indispensible part of the celebration, as my Mom had forbidden me from tasting alchohol.
Just 1/2 feet away from the road and about 10 feet away from the basement I and my dear bike hung, in a manner worse than MS Windows. There was no one at the scene. My bike gets throat infection in rainy seasons and hence her vocal cords were not functional. I was completely ignorant of the best course of action in such situations, as I hadn't even seen someone in such a 'Thrishanku' position. Worse still, someone took out his car from the basement and wanted to leave. He started sounding horn to let him go. The stupid, dumb guy(obviously!) didn't even bother himself to find out why of all the places I'm hanging there. Simply made noise for about a minute. That's when it stuck me to scream for help. I was so concerned about my bike's horn not working that I had forgotten momentarily that I could speak. "He.....lp Meeee....He.....lp Mee....". That was the first time in my life I uttered this with so much desperation. I remembered all my friends before remembering God, not sure of how long I had to be at such a metastable position. Just then, to my relief, a jovial looking man, aged between 55 to 60 happened to appear there like an angel and pushed my bike from behind. I had switched to 2nd gear by then and accelerelated finally making it to the road. Thanked the man from bottom of my heart with deepest feelings and left for home with a resolution, never to assume that my bike can pull me through a ramp in 4th gear!!
Note: I've actually written this at 10:30 pm, 23rd July'05. I write better with a pen and paper than a key board.
Comments:
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Aparna,
Why couldn’t you change to first gear and come up??? And the guy in the car was not dumb. He was just thinking you would be smart enough. ;). I am sure if you would have had champagne (which in my views is not an alcohol) such thing would have never happened. ;)
Why couldn’t you change to first gear and come up??? And the guy in the car was not dumb. He was just thinking you would be smart enough. ;). I am sure if you would have had champagne (which in my views is not an alcohol) such thing would have never happened. ;)
# posted by 
: 1:57 PM, July 25, 2005
: 1:57 PM, July 25, 2005
I guess that's Prabal there. Please put your name now on.
You smart fellow, do you think I didn't try that? You see, her front break is little weak, so I had to put my right leg on the leg-break to keep her from going reverse. Was afraid to lift my left leg off the ground(to change the gear), once I got stuck there. I guess I agree with you in that if I had taken champagne I would have been more confident to lift my leg and such thing wouldn't have happened.
-Aparna
You smart fellow, do you think I didn't try that? You see, her front break is little weak, so I had to put my right leg on the leg-break to keep her from going reverse. Was afraid to lift my left leg off the ground(to change the gear), once I got stuck there. I guess I agree with you in that if I had taken champagne I would have been more confident to lift my leg and such thing wouldn't have happened.
-Aparna
Hey, why is your bike a 'she' and not a 'he'? Even if I am to agree guyz aren't worth falling for, are you silently suggesting, you would rather fall for gurlz instead? :p
Jokes apart, liked the article.. specially the 'throat infection' part :)
Jokes apart, liked the article.. specially the 'throat infection' part :)
# posted by : 4:41 PM, July 25, 2005
: 4:41 PM, July 25, 2005
No sid, there is another way to look at it: I'm suggesting that there is a blank space still for some 'he'.
In the first place - one tip to remember - use 1st gear always when u r climbing or descending slopes (very steep)...
1st gear has the power to drag the bike - rest gears just add up to the speed.
this was the tip I received when I was learning - might help you too
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1st gear has the power to drag the bike - rest gears just add up to the speed.
this was the tip I received when I was learning - might help you too
# posted by : 11:00 AM, September 13, 2005
: 11:00 AM, September 13, 2005 Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
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